In a Downtown War of the Roses, a Garden Loved, and Unloved

It is remarkable that the Liberty Community Gardens, a small garden in Battery Park City, has survived. The garden, much like the homes of its 29 volunteer caretakers, was blanketed in ash and debris after 9/11. One gardener recalled collecting parts of a half-buried Mr. Coffee machine.

Months later, when a pedestrian bridge was built at Rector Street, the garden, with its 4-foot-by-6-foot plots, was uprooted and moved next to a 45-story condominium, Liberty Court. It is here, oddly, beside a playground, that it faces its toughest fight for survival.

Some building residents, particularly those with apartments overlooking the garden, think it is an eyesore that hurts property values. In the winter, some say, the garden takes on the barren look of a graveyard. And a move is afoot to take action.

When the garden was uprooted in April 2002 to make way for the bridge, a deal was struck between the Battery Park City Authority and Liberty Court, giving the garden a temporary home. This year, however, the condo's president, Michael Gaschler, rode to office on what he called a wave of anti-garden sentiment and is not going to renew its recently expired lease.

"I talked to one older tenant," Mr. Gaschler said. "I said, 'What about the people who have toiled in the soil?' He said: 'I've toiled all my life. This is my biggest asset. You're comparing toiling in the soil with the value of my home."'

The gardeners disagree, of course. In its ragtag topography, with one gardener's tulips blooming next to another's grape hyacinths, they see proof of a thriving cooperative. "Battery Park City is often criticized for not being a neighborhood that's a community," said Susan Brady, a gardener and a resident of Liberty Court. "The garden, to me, was emblematic of its depth of community spirit."

As the garden soil hardens and winter approaches, its future remains in doubt. The gardeners are hoping an aesthetic solution can be found. "We're willing to compromise," Michael McCormack said. "We could plant some ornamental grasses that would look nice in the winter. Maybe dedicate a few plots to a small lawn." STEVEN KURUTZ